My original plan for this summer was to start walking the Via Alpina, which traverses the arc if the Alps from Trieste to Nice or thereabouts. The first part through Slovenia, however, did not sound that much fun so I decided to spend a week instead wandering through the Triglav National Park. Having skirted the honeypot of Bled by bus, we walked to the road end and the boundary of the National Park below the wonderful Pokljuka Gorge. Without any song or dance there was a composting toilet, just where visitors might need to go.
The contrast with the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA)’s approach to public toilet provision was striking. The LLTNPA turned it’s back on composting toilets, falsely claiming they don’t work in winter, and has gone for flushing toilets. Away from sewerage systems, these are very expensive to construct due to tregulations on the disposal of waste water and, as a result, toilet provision in the National Park is completely inadequate. To rub salt into the public wound the few public toilets the LLTNPA does provide have been beset with problems and are often closed.
We saw no crap or toilet paper on the ascent of the Pokljuka gorge, a contrast to the main path up the Cobbler, for example, and many of the permit areas where camping is allowed under the camping bylaws. Composting toilets would provide a relatively cheap and sustainable solution, but there is no mention of either the problem or the solution in the LLTNPA’s consultation on their statutory 10 year review of the camping bylaws (see here)
OK, but who owns this national park, the nation or a collection of private individuals/NGOs/Quangos?
People need educated as to how to ‘*£&t’ in the woods. How difficult is it to dig a hole! That said in the busier areas, a composting loo would be a huge improvement. Descending Ben Nevis recently, I realised how unbelievably busy it is but with nowhere really to go for any privacy. Except the giant rock about 20 feet off the main path along the path that goes back to Torlundy. I’ve named it the jobby boulder because it is absolutely disgusting what’s behind it. A composting loo here would give privacy as well as stopping the mess.
‘Shitrock’ may have greater impact.
Our experience with composting toilets at a Scout camp site in the LLTNP is that they can be very successful but that urine and faeces must be separated, composting is very slow and partial and that the toilets must have regular cleaning. Putting them in high density visitor locations like Ben Nevis would be a complete waste of money (and disgusting). What is needed is that Tourist Tax, with the funds generated going straight to good visitor facilities
Aye, let’s tax the crap out of them!